New intervention studies in genetically obese mice employ a bean-based diet being tested for attenuation of colon carcinogenesis following exposure to azoxymethane. The bean-based diet was chosen to mimic conditions in the recently completed polyp prevention trial in which human subjects consuming the highest quartile of beans (navy, lima, kidney, black etc) showed a 3-fold reduction in ocurrence of advanced adenoma (E. Lanza and coworkers 2006, 2009). The whole beans and two bean fractions showed efficacy in attenuating tumor multiplicity (Bobe et al, Nutr Ca 2008). Recent studies have identified inflammation-associated cytokines as indicators of bean-diet efficacy (Mentor-Marcel et al Ca Prev Res 2009). Current studies are aimed at identifying funtionally significant molecular targets of the bean diets under conditions of efficacy as well as predictive biomarkers. Gene expression profiling of fecal colonocytes has revealed sets of 2 to 3 genes whose changes are indicative of risk (Zhao et al Ca Prev Res 2009).